The Football Association charge ruined the 22nd anniversary of his spell as manager of Manchester United.

The FA move followed Fergie's furious tirade at referee Mike Dean at the end of United's 4-3 win over Hull at Old Trafford last weekend.

Fergie's conduct made a mockery of the FA's Respect campaign which the United boss signed up to at the start of the new season.

The hot-tempered manager was incensed at what he felt was Dean's failure to give his players enough protection and was livid that United were denied a penalty when Michael Carrick was brought down in the second-half.

The United boss, who has until November 19 to respond to the charge, had to be restrained by his captain Gary Neville as he gave Wirralbased Dean the full hairdryer treatment.

Fergie was also upset at Dean's failure to punish Michael Turner for what he claimed was a second bookable offence - and a mandatory red card - after a foul on Carrick on the edge of the penalty area.

Fergie is set to request a personal hearing and acting for him will be former FA compliance officer Graham Bean, who has become known as football's Mr Loophole for his ability to get his clients off certain charges. If found guilty, he could be banned from the technical area for up to two games and fined heavily.

It is the second season running Fergie has been in trouble with the FA. Last season he was fined £5,000 and banned for two games after being found guilty of using foul and abusive language towards ref Mark Clattenburg during United's 1-0 defeat at Bolton.

But Fergie escaped punishment last March after another misconduct charge. He was alleged to have verbally attacked ref Martin Atkinson and referees' chief Keith Hackett, following United's FA Cup quarter-final loss to Portsmouth.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is still waiting to hear if he will face any FA action over his "cowards" jibe at Stoke.